The present invention concerns an electric exhaler for the vaporization, at high temperature, of disinfesting insecticide products.
The thorough disinfestation of closed environments from infesting insects (beetles, spiders, flies, ticks, fleas and other insects), which may nest inside houses and other closed spaces, has up-to-date been carried out by spreading into said environments suitable insecticide substances, in such concentrations as to prove effective also against insects of a certain size such as those mentioned hereabove.
For the disinfesting operation to prove really effective the rooms must be perfectly closed, any objects which will subsequently get in contact with human beings will have to be previously removed therefrom (or be carefully washed after the operation) and, finally, any furniture and cupboards in the room will have to be left open, so that the active substance may easily penetrate therein. After the active substance has been spread into the rooms having to be disinfested, it is then necessary to allow it to act for a sufficiently long period of timexe2x80x94for example, a couple of hoursxe2x80x94without introducing any changes of air and obviously preventing any persons or animals from getting into such rooms during this period of time.
Two different technologies are adopted nowadays to spread the active substance into the environments having to be disinfested, and precisely, burning a combustible support impregnated with the active substance, or spreading into the environment a finely vaporized active substance by means of a suitable gaseous propellant. Both these technologies forcedly require the use of disposable containers, which cannot be used again and, furthermore, they imply introducing into the environment substances which are alien to the disinfesting action, such as the combustion gases of the support or, respectively, the gaseous propellants used to vaporize the active substance. This involves a considerable increase in the cost of such devices, compared to the intrinsic value of the mere active substance, both due to the cost of the container (higher in the case of the container holding the gaseous propellant) and due to the cost of the combustible support or of the propellant.
A further drawback of the known devices lies moreover in the fact that the alien substance introduced into the environment is apt to create both ecological problemsxe2x80x94as it still happens nowadays in the case of several propellants, though to a reduced extent in respect of a recent pastxe2x80x94and problems of persistent unpleasant smells or fouling, as it may happen instead in the case of combustible products which, if not used with the due care, may besides involve a slight but not totally neglectable risk of causing fires or damages to the surface coverings.
It should finally be underlined that the fumigating combustion products are actually those which prove to be more effective in use since, due to the high temperatures reached during combustion of the support, they allow a fast vaporization of the active substance used (Tetramethrin, Permethrin, Cypermethrin, Thralometrin, and the like), which normally has a rather low vapor pressure. This causes, in the environment being treated, the forming of a high initial concentration of active substance, which thus proves to be particularly effective in killing the insects present therein. Due to the aforecited drawbacks, tied to the use of combustion products, it has more recently been deemed to change over to those making use of a gaseous propellant (normally a compressed liquefied gas), which are no doubt easier to use and potentially involve less problems for the environment being treated, but which still involve the possible dangers tied to the use and storage of inflammable aerosol products (the propellant) close to heat sources, free flames and the like.
The object of the present invention is to thus supply a device for the fast vaporization of insecticide active substances, to disinfest closed environments, apt to overcome the above drawbacks while proving to be as highly effective in use as the fumigating combustion products.
In particular, the object of the present invention is to supply a device for the vaporization of disinfesting products, which does not make use of disposable containers and which hence involves, for each treatment, only the reduced cost for the refill of the active substance, which does not cause the inlet into the environment of substances alien to the required active substance, which allows the fast vaporization of a high quantity of active substance, and which involves no risks of causing fires or anyhow damaging the environments in which it is used, even failing any special precautions in the use thereof.
According to the present invention, said objects are reached by means of an electric exhaler for the vaporization of disinfesting insecticide products, of the type comprising a heating element and a porous support impregnated with an active substance apt to be evaporated at high temperature, characterized in that said heating element is a resistance apt to reach a surface temperature exceeding 400xc2x0 C., and preferably of 600xc2x0 C., and in that said support is a refill of porous ceramic material.
According to a characteristic of the invention, the ceramic refill impregnated with the active substance is positioned adjacent to said resistance and, preferably, in contact therewith.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the ceramic refill comprises a central portion, in tight contact with the resistance and partially surrounding the same, and a peripheral portion consisting of one or more wings projecting from said central portion to rest the ceramic refill onto the structure of the electric exhaler.